Lucas Rep Says Star Wars 1313 Might Be Saved

Game Informer recently interviewed a
representative from LucasFilm, who shed some light on the events leading to the
closing of LucasArts. They also revealed that some of the company's projects in
development, including Star Wars 1313, might have a future after all.

The representative we spoke to said that this
was not a decision made in haste, and a possible closing of LucasArts had been
being evaluated since Disney acquired the publisher as part of the
Disney/LucasArts deal in October, 2012:

"All of these things happened at once. Naturally, as any company that goes
through a big announcement like this, you have to look through your whole
portfolio and realign some things. 1313 was looking fantastic, the reception
has been great. Our other unannounced titles are fine, it just got to a point
where from a business standpoint we couldn't continue developing those
internally and keep up with the direction that the company was going."

Website Kotaku is reporting that 150 LucasArts employees have been laid
off, and that the games Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313 have been
cancelled. However, the representative we spoke to said that the company is
also evaluating its options regarding projects currently in development, which
could be licensed out to external development and publishing partners:

"It is worth noting that we are looking for proven external partners who
can help us provide video games to our fans. We still believe in the video game
industry, we still will provide Star Wars games, we're just looking at
different models rather than internal production... They're evaluating
everything. There's always a possibility that it [Star Wars 1313] can still
come out via licensing."

The representative also remarked on the general mood at the studio today,
which, understandably, is not upbeat:

"It's super sad. It's a terrible day. I want to make sure everyone realizes
that there still will be Star Wars games out there."